My name is Philo Hagen and welcome to Unlit, my dark music blog. As someone who has loved dark wave, goth rock, dark ambient, post-punk, EBM, death rock, neofolk, synthpop, and the unlit flavors of several other genres since their inception, I was always on the lookout for a site that celebrated the best of all of it rather than focusing on one specific niche, and I never found it. I always thought that was strange too. Having spent a few decades in and out of the goth and industrial club scene, something I’ve learned in my independent, casual and incredibly random surveys with others over the years is that while we may all have a darker music genre drug of choice, so to speak, it is extremely rare to find anyone who only partakes of one sound exclusively.
The idea for Unlit began percolating on August 2, 2019, at a rather disappointing Covenant concert at Catch One here in Los Angeles. Thanks to bad sound and an out of control fog machine that left the band completely hidden, the evening primarily resulted in captivating conversation that eventually landed on this very topic. A few months later, with extra special thanks to a global pandemic for providing more than enough solitude and free time for me to build a new website, the idea for a wider aimed dark music blog became a reality. Unlit launched on March 1, 2021 with one very simple mission, to share a large scope of darker music flavors with others out there who might appreciate them all too.
The Vogue, Seattle, WA
As an “elder goth” that still isn’t in love with that term because it makes me sound old, I will also note that my tastes do tend to be a little softer now then they were back in the day as well. In the 1980’s in Seattle you could find me at the Monastery, the Batcave and The Vogue. During the 1990’s and 2000’s in San Francisco I made routine appearances on the dance floor at Death Guild. In the 2010’s and the 20’s nos as well I live in Los Angeles and while I don’t go out like I used to, I do love catching bands live and making an occasional appearance at Das Bunker events and such too.
Death Guild, San Francisco
I’m excited about Unlit not only because I love the music, but I love turning people on to new albums and artists they may not have heard of even more. I hope you enjoy the site and if you would like to submit something – share something – or even join me on this shadowy quest to turn out the lights in some capacity – please feel free to drop me a line or DM me on Instagram and I look forward to hearing from you.
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